Patrizia has made a significant investment in a portfolio of student residences in Barcelona on behalf of her institutional clients. This portfolio, with 20,468 square meters of residential space and which will generate income from day one, consists of two buildings, a car park and a total of 635 units.
Marina, the first of the two buildings, has 538 units and is located in the 22@ district of Barcelona. The second, Poble Sec, has 97 units and is located in the Sant Antoni area. The assets, which were built in 2009 and 2007, respectively, were completely renovated in 2017 and have services such as a gym, a hall, meeting rooms, a conference room or five swimming pools on its roof.
Eduardo de Roda, Country Head for Iberia at Patrizia, has stated that “the growing mobility of the Spanish student population and the increasing attractiveness of cities like Barcelona among foreign students have caused a structural shortage of high-quality student accommodation in Spain. Spain. This latest acquisition in Barcelona will help to alleviate this problem through assets surrounded by a complete offer of local and well-connected services at the transport level."
With this acquisition, Patrizia has built a pan-European student residence portfolio spanning cities such as Copenhagen, Dublin, Hamburg, and now Barcelona. Considering this investment in Barcelona, Patrizia has acquired student residences valued at more than 470 million euros in the last 12 months. This latest transaction has also contributed to Patrizia's assets under management in Iberia exceeding 2,000 million euros.
Antonio Marín-Bataller, General Director of Pan-European Transactions of Patrizia, has pointed out that “despite the uncertain market environment, student residences remain resilient and are one of our favorite segments in the field of housing. Their occupancy rates are bordering on record highs in many European cities as students return to universities and overall student numbers rise, even compared to pre-pandemic times. Therefore, we will continue to carefully select opportunities in the student residence segment in Europe in those cities that have a strong spirit of innovation and connectivity.
KPMG has advised Patrizia on legal and tax matters, while Cushman & Wakefield has acted as agent. On behalf of the seller, Savills acted as advisor.
